New Presents to Ourselves!

Well, I couldn't resist. I've been wanting a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer for years now and finally broke down. We'll call it a pregnancy present! The last few times I tried to make baked goodies with my hand mixer it just didn't cut it. I had this great recipe for apple spice cake, and once I added the big chunks of apples to the batter the consistency was almost unmanageable with my hand mixer or hands alone (yes, my hands were working overtime in the bowl). Another time I added the ingredients wrong for something or other, and while it would have been fine in a stand mixer, the hand mixer just couldn't handle it and it was such a mess! Hence, my brand new, white, 5 quart, kitchen aid stand mixer....for all our cooking and baking needs. My proudest moment in this process was finding one that was brand new for $130 off the price at the store! Now that's some good shopping! I can't wait to eat up some smooth and creamy mashed potatos!

Recently Josh, good daddy that he is, asked me about getting a nice 35mm SLR. I was overjoyed that it was his idea and not mine...since I am usually the one spending the money (see story above)! I actually bought a really old used Pentax K1000 about a year ago on Ebay and got a bum deal, and although I had every intention of taking it to a camera shop to be fixed, I never have. I agreed it was a great idea to have a nice, new one to capture all the sweet little snuggles and yawns and toesies that will be too precious to resist. So we hunted around and found a brand new, opened package Nikon N75 from an Ebay shop that seemed professional and had great reviews. When we got it and tore open the package we both stared in amazment at the new fangled toy. We were both expecting a plain ol, manual, 35mm but what we got has all the electronic bells and whistles of the 21st century! It has a little digital panel on the top to tell us all kinds of things. The aperature and shutter speed are electronic but I wish they were manual. The focus is manual, but the f-stop and shutter speed are going to take some getting used to. We've taken a test roll and are awaiting it's development...yahoo!!